How Moniepoint Powers Millions of Businesses Across Nigeria

Justin Norman: Is Moniepoint very popular here? 

Emmanuel (BRM): It's very, very popular.

Justin Norman: Why? 

Emmanuel (BRM): Yes, because it's the best banking experience so far. In terms of transaction, the reference, everything. 

**Abubakar (Agent): **Moniepoint is the best POS…  network was fast. Everything was good [with] Moniepoint, that's why I'm liking [it]. 

Afolabi Joshua (Foodies): There's nothing like a decline. There's nothing like a reversal of transactions. Reconciliation made easy. 

Justin Norman: Why did you want to get Moniepoint?

Samuel James (Merchant): I want to get it because they told me that it's very fast in translation. 

Justin Norman: Compared to this other one here that you have? 

Samuel James (Merchant): Yes.

Peace (Agent): The network is very good. Moniepoint is good, it’s a good network.

Justin Norman: There’s a fintech battle in Nigeria, and one company is winning. 

Ezekiel Sani: I can tell you for free, as it actually stands in Nigeria, Moniepoint is responsible for processing more than 50 percent of the total transactions that happen on POS terminals in the country.

Justin Norman: To understand why, I hit the streets of Lagos, Nigeria. Here at this market in Lagos, Nigeria, point-of-sale agents are everywhere. And the majority of them are using these blue devices…

Justin Norman: Moniepoint has millions of these devices in use across the country which power Nigeria’s offline economy, and while there are many competitors in this space, Moniepoint appears to beating them all. 

Justin Norman: But how did they do it? How did Moniepoint grow so quickly? And why has it become the preferred choice for agents and merchants across Nigeria?

Ezekiel Sanni: The agents using us, they make more profits when they use Moniepoint.

Justin Norman: That’s Ezekiel Sanni. He leads distribution and offline sales for Moniepoint. And the cool thing about Ezekiel is, he started as an agent, before rising through the ranks of the company.

Ezekiel Sanni: Basically I started with Moniepoint mid-2019 as an agent. Then I was contacted, the friend who introduced me to Moniepoint contacted me, informing me about Moniepoint is about going nationwide and I should apply for the position of State Coordinator for Edo state.

Justin Norman: And a couple of years and promotions later…

Ezekiel Sanni: I'm the Senior Vice President of Distribution Networks here at Moniepoint. 

Justin Norman: So Ezekiel understands from experience what problems agents and merchants face and what they want from their point-of-sale devices.

Ezekiel Sanni: What's agents basically look at, they look at three things, right? Pricing, incentives -  a form of rebates - and the service uptime.

Justin Norman:** **Reliability seems to be the most important criterion for users. 

Ezekiel Sanni: Prior to Moniepoint, we have issues with uptime. Not just limited to us, it has been like an industry-wide issue. 

Justin Norman: Failed transactions are a big problem in Nigeria. And in an environment with low levels of spending power and low trust, that’s a really important problem to solve. 

Ezekiel Sanni: Especially for the agent, right? The agent, their business involves a quick turnaround. They will have limited cash, and they want to quickly turn this around so that they can make more profits. And we have this issue of their cash or their funds being trapped. 

Justin Norman: So in addition to building a more reliable product and easier ways to initiate requests for refund when there are failed transactions, Moniepoint has also introduced a number of product features, such as instant settlements.

Ezekiel Sanni: We have this issue of merchants and agents not getting their funds settled on time. The conventional banks, what they offer is T+1, which is transaction day plus one. So if a merchant or a customer uses his or her card on a POS terminal at a merchant's location, the merchants will not get settled until the next day. So Moniepoint came in with instant settlements, right? You are getting your money real time as you are transacting.

Justin Norman: While Moniepoint has built product reliability the agents and merchants Moniepoint services are small businesses that use these point-of-sale terminals as a tool to help them grow. 

Ezekiel Sanni: So the entry point is business account. That is like the foundation for all every other products. The point of sale can be assigned to that business account. Expense card can be assigned to the business account. And once you start using the business accounts, you're qualified to get a working capital loan. 

Justin Norman: In Nigeria’s fintech battle, many merchants or agents have multiple devices, which they will have opened or which they use depending on incentives offered.

Samuel James (Merchant): Let me say from the beginning, when you are starting, because if you want to collect this one [Moniepoint], sometimes they will give you a condition that you don’t meet up the target of collecting the Moniepoint. This one now [competitor terminal], I bought it. It doesn't have any conditions. 

Justin Norman: While some fintechs and banks choose to offer discounts on the device or structure their pricing to boost customer acquisition, Moniepoint wants to incentivize utilization. 

Ezekiel Sanni: There is a certain amount that is set aside as cash back to the agents. So apart from the fact that they make more profits with our pricing, they have the rebate is there, and when they do more with our terminals, they get more cash back. So they want to go for it. 

Justin Norman: Now, in a market like Nigeria, companies like Moniepoint need to employ a strong ground game, leveraging a field sales team to play a critical role in distribution, as well as sales and support. 

Justin Norman: How many people do you work with here? How many agents? 

Emmanuel (BRM): Like I'm giving for today? Just two. 

Justin Norman: But in general, how many do you look after? 

Emmanuel (BRM): 50. 

Justin Norman: That’s Emmanuel, one of Moniepoint’s field salespeople, who we bumped into as he was going to onboard a new customer in the market. 

Ezekiel Sanni: BRMs are our foot soldiers, right? BRM stands for business relationship manager. So they interface with the merchants and our agents daily. They are literally in the field be it during sunshine and during rain, they are there trying to get business owners on board the Moniepoint platform. They don't just stop at selling. They also provide fixed level of support to the business owners. 

Justin Norman: And Moniepoint leverages this kind of incentivization to not only increase utilization of their devices amongst their customers but also to boost the productivity of their team in the field. 

Ezekiel Sanni: One thing that has contributed to this effectiveness is around that the commission they earn as incentives. So the sales team, they basically look at it at themselves as entrepreneurs, and they are willing to go all out and get this job done. We have gotten that right and we have improved on it. And that is why you see that every corner you go in Nigeria, you'll see our terminal.